It’s been just over two months since I left the old world of Prague for the modern city of Rotterdam. While a month of that was spent in America showing Gert the most wonderful country (blog post on his thoughts to come), the rest of that time has been a mixture of weddings, Visa struggles appointments, visiting with Gert’s family, and working on well, work. More will be written on these subjects later, but for now some thoughts on the biggest adventure of my life in Europe thus far: being in a relationship with a foreigner.
1. Communicate.
As in all relationships, communication is key. However it becomes infinitely more important in a cross-cultural relationship.
If your romantic interest’s first language isn’t English, you will struggle at least to some degree with the language barrier. Be on guard for possible miscommunications, especially as conversations grow deeper. Talking about your hobbies in Spanish is one thing but expressing your heart is a whole different ballgame.
It’s not just lack of vocabulary that can cause trouble either; sometimes a word or phrase has been learned incorrectly. When I started dating my Dutch boyfriend, he would tell me things about his family and friends such as, “My sister wants to move to Asia,” and I would reply, “Wow, good for her.” One day after such a conversation my boyfriend stated, “You’re really rude sometimes.” Which is true — but just not in this particular moment. He said he disliked how I wasn’t genuinely happy for people. It turned out that he hadn’t learned that “good for her” can mean literally, good for her(!). He’d only ever heard with a sarcastic, bitter connotation. So communicate what you mean clearly and listen for feedback indicating that the person has understood you…
Foreign Haven 
You are very brave! Enjoy your blog immensely & am somewhat living vicariously through your overseas adventures. Hope to see you sometime in 2016!
Love, Aunt Carol